Coffee, tea, and controversy

A Maine town down on its luck confronts pitch for topless shop

VASSALBORO, Maine - For coffee drinkers who need more than caffeine to get them going, Donald Crabtree thinks he's hit on an eye-opening answer in this small town just north of Augusta.

Crabtree plans to open a topless coffee shop in as soon as a month here, where the biggest excitement has usually been the town picnic during Vassalboro Days each September.

In a long-vacant building that once housed Mac Daddy's Pub at the Fat Cat Grille, Crabtree plans topless service between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 25 tables arranged on a checkerboard floor behind blacked-out windows and a cordon of security.

But where Crabtree sees a unique niche in a tanking economy, many townspeople see a worrisome toehold that will beckon similar businesses and undesirable visitors.

"My husband doesn't drink coffee," said Erlile Pelletier, as she worked the cash register at Ferris Variety. "But I told him if he became a coffee drinker, we were getting a divorce."

All through this sprawling, rural community of 4,400 people, residents are shaking their heads at the latest enterprise in a town that needs an economic shot in the arm.

"Vassalboro would probably like to be on the map, but not for this," said Brian Hutchison, whose wife runs a popular breakfast and lunch spot here. "We ain't nobody to judge what they're doing, but everybody has a right to be against it, too."

Crabtree, 40, has already faced down the opposition - and won. At a Planning Board hearing last week that attracted more than 50 irate residents, the board threw up its hands and declared that town law did not prohibit such an establishment.

"The place is all up to snuff, and has been, so there's no reason to refuse," said George Gould, a board member. "If he wants to have different uniforms, or whatever, that's up to him."

To Crabtree, who has struggled as a contractor and wholesale lobsterman, he's simply a guy trying to cobble together a piece of the American dream.

"I need something that I can do to make money again," said Crabtree, who has four adult children. "Everything is failing, but nudity is not a dying business. No matter where you go, people are half-dressed. I figured, what the hell can I lose?"

Crabtree is awaiting approval from the state fire marshal and human services officials to do inspections on technical issues such as safety and sanitation.

Then, the doors will open at The Topless Coffee Shop, where Crabtree plans to use six waitstaff for each of two shifts. There will be a half-dozen kinds of coffee available, a half-dozen brands of tea, cappuccino, juices, soda, and pastries from local bakeries.

And, in a nod to what Crabtree said were complaints "from jealous women," he plans to include a few topless males. When patrons arrive, he said, they will be asked if they prefer a male or female server.

The staff, he said, must be clean, drug-free, and "respectable." There will be no touching, and no one under 18 will be permitted inside.

"We're not just going to pick someone off the street," Crabtree said of his staff. "They've got to be friendly, and we'll try to hire a variety of sizes. Not everyone likes a skinny girl. Not everyone likes a big girl. I think it's important to have a variety."

Even among some with misgivings here, Crabtree is given a grudging thumb's-up for trying something - anything - to boost commerce.

"The town of Vassalboro needs businesses, you know?" Hutchison said with a shrug.

His wife, Bridget, who is cook and owner at Bridget's Place, pondered the potential impact on her small restaurant with a bemused smile. "Everybody's going to try it, but most of my customers will come back, I assume," said Bridget.

Meanwhile, word has begun to spread about the business, which will be located on the outskirts of town off busy Route 3.

Angela Goodrich, who works at The Country Store, said she already had fielded questions for directions to the place. "I really don't have a problem with it," Goodrich said. "And people who do have a problem with it don't have to go. It's just trying to get people some jobs. We need it."

Paul Mitnik, the town's code enforcement officer and plumbing inspector, concurred that Vassalboro could use a lift.

"Any kind of business we could get here would be good," said Mitnik, who declared himself officially neutral on the propriety of such a shop. "But I think the novelty of the topless staff will wear off pretty quickly.

That said, Mitnik seemed sadly wistful that such an enterprise has emerged as a partial answer to Vassalboro's economic prayers.

"I'd like to see a business that people accept more, that everybody feels good about," Mitnik said. "A lot of people are making a joke about it. But for many people in town, it's not a joke at all."